U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,870 provides a connector which include a plurality of contact arrays formed in a grid. This patent discloses two different arrangements for the contacts. In the first arrangement, the connector includes a plurality of contact arrays parallel to one another. Each of the contact arrays includes two signal contacts adjacent to each other and a ground contact aligned with the signal contacts. In each contact array, the ground contact is located at a position corresponding to an intermediate position between two signal contacts in a next contact array. In the second arrangement, the connector includes a plurality of contacts which includes first and second contact arrays parallel to each other and a third contact array between the first and the second contact arrays. Each of the first and the second contact arrays includes a plurality of signal contacts, and the third contact array includes a plurality of ground contacts. Each of the ground contacts is disposed at a position corresponding to an intermediate position between every adjacent ones of the signal contacts in each of the first and the second contact arrays.
This second arrangement of the contacts in U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,870 does not provide for a great distance between the ground contacts since the ground contacts are all provided on the same row. In addition, the second arrangement in U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,870 does not provide for a great distance between adjacent pairs of signal contacts since the signal contacts are provided on the same row. As a result, cross-talk between signal contact pairs is possible.
The present invention provides a connector which overcomes the problems presented in the prior art and which provides additional advantages over the prior art, such advantages will become clear upon a reading of the attached specification in combination with a study of the drawings.